An American doctor, Stuart Hameroff, Professor Emeritus at the Departments of Anesthesiology and Psychology and the Director of the Centre of Consciousness Studies at the University of Arizona, and a British physicist, Sir Roger Penrose, have proposed

According to the quantum consciousness theory, the soul lives within structures called microtubules that live inside brain cells.

a ground-breaking quantum theory of consciousness. Their theory advances the concept that “the essence of our soul is contained inside structures called microtubules within brain cells.”

They have argued that our experience of consciousness is the result of quantum gravity effects in these microtubules, a theory which they dubbed orchestrated objective reduction (Orch-OR).

Thus it is held that our souls are more than the interaction of neurons in the brain. They are in fact constructed from the very fabric of the universe – and may have existed since the beginning of time.

The concept is similar to the Buddhist and Hindu belief that consciousness is an integral part of the universe – and indeed that it is really all there may be, a position similar to Western philosophical idealism, the paper said.

With these beliefs, Hameroff holds that in a near-death experience the microtubules lose their quantum state, but the information within them is not destroyed. Instead it merely leaves the body and returns to the cosmos.

“Let’s say the heart stops beating, the blood stops flowing, the microtubules lose their quantum state. The quantum information within the microtubules is not destroyed, it can’t be destroyed, it just distributes and dissipates to the universe at large,” Hameroff told the Science Channel’s Through the Wormhole documentary.

“If the patient is resuscitated, revived, this quantum information can go back into the microtubules and the patient says ‘I had a near-death experience’,” Hameroff said.

“If they’re not revived, and the patient dies, it’s possible that this quantum information can exist outside the body, perhaps indefinitely, as a soul,” Hameroff added. (Excerpt taken from “Scientists unveil quantum theory of soul’s existence,” ZeeNews.com; emphasis supplied.)

Has science discovered the soul? What do you think? Share your thoughts with us by posting them below. (You can read more of the same news at news.com.au and the Daily Mail site.)

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About Marc of Contemplative Pathways

Marc teaches contemplative meditation in the context of contemporary mysticism. His understanding of the mystical life is rooted in close to 40 years of study, practice, unfoldment, realization and experience, in the course of which he has received the gifts of spiritual discernment and transmission. His teaching work meaningfully shifts consciousness in a student through the process and alchemy of mystical transformation.
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Within the context of the great shift in consciousness now occurring all over the planet, Marc’s work presently focuses on individual and collective spiritual transformation and healing. He promotes the practice of contemplation or meditation as the vehicle for transcendence and ascension to the higher dimensions of mystical consciousness.
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This is interesting to me as I have been working on the idea of “Cellular Karma.” The theory presented here fits precisely with the idea that Karma is carried through our molecular structure, very scientific…unfortunately I do not have the science background to really comprehend or convey the thoughts correctly but to answer your question, yes I think these scientists are on to something. Thanks for sharing.

Glad you liked the post, kenajos. We’ll follow developments and see whether their quantum theory of consciousness is eventually proven and widely accepted. That should be a milestone for mankind and human civilization.

Laura K. McKemmish,1 Jeffrey R. Reimers,1,* Ross H. McKenzie,2 Alan E. Mark,3 and Noel S. Hush4 1School of Chemistry, The University of Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia
2School of Mathematics and Physics, The University of Queensland, Queensland 4072, Australia
3School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences and Institute for Molecular Biosciences, The University of Queensland, Queensland 4072, Australia

4School of Molecular and Microbial Biosciences, The University of Sydney, New South Wales 2006, Australia Received 15 November 2008; revised manuscript received 29 May 2009; published 13 August 2009

Penrose and Hameroff have argued that the conventional models of a brain function based on neural networks alone cannot account for human consciousness, claiming that quantum-computation elements are also required. Specifically, in their Orchestrated Objective Reduction Orch OR model R. Penrose and S. R. Hameroff, J. Conscious. Stud. 2, 99 1995, it is postulated that microtubules act as quantum processing units, with individual tubulin dimers forming the computational elements. This model requires that the tubulin is able to switch between alternative conformational states in a coherent manner, and that this process be rapid on the physiological time scale. Here, the biological feasibility of the Orch OR proposal is examined in light of recent experimental studies on microtubule assembly and dynamics. It is shown that the tubulins do not possess essential properties required for the Orch OR proposal, as originally proposed, to hold. Further, we consider also recent progress in the understanding of the long-lived coherent motions in biological systems, a feature critical to Orch OR, and show that no reformation of the proposal based on known physical paradigms could lead to quantum computing within microtubules. Hence, the Orch OR model is not a feasible explanation of the origin of consciousness.

Physical Review E: Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics is a peer-reviewed, scientific journal, published monthly by the American Physical Society.

I am certain there is infinitely more to the subject of consciousness than biological and other scientific theories or models can advance and propose. But it is good to see well-meaning scientists at least keep an open mind and pursue their interests in the subject, all in the spirit of discovery and understanding. 😉

Revisiting the Past

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